Mylan Chief Flies Firm's Jet to Side Gig: Son's Concerts

Like executives at many companies, Robert J. Coury, executive chairman of generic drug maker Mylan Inc.,MYL-0.64% is allowed personal use of his employer's corporate jets.

Unlike most executives, Mr. Coury also has a side business: a record label that promotes the fledgling music career of his son, Tino Coury, a young pop singer with a Top 40 hit in 2010 and a new album released online last month.

In a mingling of these two parts of the Mylan chief's life, federal flight records show that one of Mylan's two jets has frequently flown to the same cities in which the younger Mr. Coury was playing a concert. On some occasions, the jet—a Bombardier Global Express the size of a regional airliner—flew directly from one of Tino Coury's concert locations to the next.

Robert J. Coury, executive chairman of generic drugmaker Mylan, is allowed personal use of Mylan's two corporate jets. Unlike most executives, Mr. Coury also has a side business: A record label that promotes the fledgling music career of his son, Tino Coury. Mark Maremont reports on The News Hub. Photo: Getty Images.

On July 3, 2010, for example, Tino Coury performed a late-night gig at a Cincinnati nightclub. At 3:18 a.m., the Mylan jet left Cincinnati for West Palm Beach, Fla., arriving there around 5 a.m. Later that day, Tino Coury performed at a July 4th concert in West Palm Beach.

The following week, Tino Coury performed near Hartford, Conn. Shortly afterward, the Mylan jet traveled from Hartford to Las Vegas, where he had his next performance. Based on the aircraft's estimated hourly operating cost, the tab for the one-way flight was about $22,000.

Nina Devlin, a spokeswoman for Pittsburgh-based Mylan, said Mr. Coury's employment contracts have allowed outside personal activities, "including those related to his son Tino's career." She said Mr. Coury isn't required to use the corporate jets but his employment contracts for the past decade have allowed personal use by him and his family.

Tino Coury on YouTube

Ms. Devlin, who was speaking on behalf of Mr. Coury and Mylan, declined to say who was aboard individual flights or which flights involved concerts. But she said: "Mr. Coury's family members have occasionally been passengers on the corporate aircraft," adding that "it is Mr. Coury's practice that no member of his family is permitted to travel on the aircraft unless Mr. Coury himself also is a passenger."

Tino Coury didn't respond to messages left with his publicity agent.

Mr. Coury, 52 years old, is a former strategic consultant who became chief executive of Mylan in 2002. Under his leadership the company became the second-largest U.S. generic drug maker, developed a substantial international business and nearly tripled its market value to $11.4 billion.

Its products include the EpiPen injector for acute allergic reactions. He became executive chairman on Jan. 1, 2012, but remains the firm's highest-paid corporate officer.

Amid criticism from corporate-governance activists, some companies have curbed the practice of allowing executives to use company aircraft for personal flights or required executives to reimburse the costs. Mylan isn't one of them.

In 2007 Mylan bought its first Bombardier Global Express and this year replaced it with a new plane. In 2011 the firm said it spent $500,779 to provide personal flights for Mr. Coury, a calculation that included incremental costs, such as fuel and landing fees. His aircraft perks for 2011 ranked ninth among executives of Russell 3000 corporations, according to GMI Ratings, which tracks executive pay. His annual pay package exceeded $20 million in both 2010 and 2011.

Earlier this year, Mylan was one of a small minority of companies that suffered defeats in nonbinding "say on pay" votes, meaning that a majority of shareholders opposed the drug maker's executive-pay program. The prior year, Mylan eliminated a controversial practice in which it paid Mr. Coury extra to cover taxes due on his personal-aircraft perks. The company recently announced a range of changes to its pay and governance practices, but jet use wasn't affected.

Robertino "Tino" Coury, the second of Mr. Coury's eight children, lives in Los Angeles and launched his musical career in 2009.

To promote his son's career, the elder Mr. Coury and two of his brothers, Jeff and Gregg, formed Eleventh Records in November 2009, according to state filings and the company's website. Mr. Coury is executive chairman, according to the website, which says the plan was to sign other artists and producers. The family also formed Tino Touring LLC and Eleventh Publishing LLC, a music publisher.

This wasn't the only business relationship between the elder Mr. Coury and his brothers. Coury Investment Advisors, a company in which two of his brothers, Gregg and Paul, are principals, has served as a broker for Mylan's employee-benefit plans. Various insurers paid them $597,000 in the past three years for Mylan-related business, according to U.S. Labor Department filings. The Mylan spokeswoman said the drug maker has done business with the Coury company for 15 years, predating its chairman becoming a Mylan executive.

Soon after starting the record label, the Coury brothers "began taking meetings in their new business world," according to the Eleventh Records website, and struck a deal with a Los Angeles-based record distributor that was then part of Vivendi SAVIVHY1.58%'s Universal Music Group.

Mylan's corporate jets, which seldom flew to Los Angeles in 2007 and 2008, began flying there more often in late 2009. The Global Express landed at Los Angeles-area airports at least 18 times in 2010 and early 2011.

Tino Coury quickly had a Top 40 hit with "Diary," released on the radio in May 2010, about a young man who discovers his girlfriend's infidelity by reading her diary. He embarked on a tour, mostly playing at small venues or opening for better-known acts.

One of the first stops was San Antonio. The night before the May 23, 2010, concert, the Mylan Global Express flew from Pittsburgh to San Antonio, then back the next evening. The plane later landed in other cities where Tino Coury was performing, including Cleveland; Corpus Christi, Texas; and Kingsport, Tenn.

One of Tino Coury's highest-profile gigs came on March 18, 2011, when he performed at a Las Vegas birthday party for actress Eva Longoria. The Mylan jet flew from Pittsburgh to Las Vegas two days beforehand. A day after the event, the jet stopped in Burbank, Calif., before returning to Pittsburgh.

In all, reviewing flight records, concert publicity and Tino Coury's FacebookFB-1.26% page, The Wall Street Journal found more than a dozen instances in 2010 and early 2011 in which a Mylan jet traveled, on or around a concert date, to a city where Tino Coury was performing.

The Journal didn't review Mylan flights after March 2011. The company has blocked the public from viewing its aircraft flight paths on Internet flight databases, and the Federal Aviation Administration has yet to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request for updated flight records.

So far, Tino Coury's music career hit a peak with "Diary," which has sold about 79,000 copies, according to music-tracker Nielsen SoundScan. A music video of the song has more than two million YouTube views.

Mylan also sponsors the Mylan Classic, a Pittsburgh-area golf tournament that is part of a tour for professionals just below the top ranks. Evening musical concerts are included in the ticket price.

For the 2010 tournament, the Mylan Classic issued a news release heralding a performer who would open for the Commodores: Tino Coury. The release described "Diary" as "a canny combination of exhilarating pop, slamming beats and lyrical drama," and it mentioned "Tino's upcoming album, due out later this year, on indie label Eleventh Records."

The Mylan spokeswoman referred questions to the staff of the tournament, which is operated as a charitable nonprofit. Chase McClain, the tournament director, said Tino Coury wasn't paid, but it was "good P.R." for the singer. He said that he couldn't recall how the Mylan Classic selected Tino Coury but that it was "through Robert Coury" and that the younger Mr. Coury had "grown up around here. People know him."

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